Ice Castles at The Forks put winter’s beauty on full display

Handout photograph from Ice Castles, a Utah-based company bringing its attraction to The Forks in Winnipeg starting on Fri., Jan. 5, 2018. A.J. Mellor/HANDOUT

The original idea was to build something his young daughter would find magical, and now Brent Christensen is bringing fairytales to life at select subzero locations across North America.

The co-founder of Ice Castles, a Utah-based company that opens its first attraction in Winnipeg at The Forks on Friday, Christensen moved from California to the small town of Alpine in 2000.

New to this winter thing, he toyed with a number of ice forts and other structures. In 2008, Christensen built one atop a wood substructure that left a giant mess in his backyard, so the following year he set out to build one without support. Store-bought ice blocks were fashioned into an igloo, and partway through he hit upon the idea of using icicles as building blocks, letting water run down them overnight to create what’s turned into a solid business.

“It was a eureka moment, but every day was like a eureka, seeing what worked and what didn’t work,” Christensen said over the phone from Utah earlier this week. “The lightbulb clicked on, and the possibilities seemed almost endless with what you could do with that.”

Visitors to the Forks will see towering hand-built castles weighing more than 25 million pounds and standing as high as 15 metres that they can walk through, with LED-lit sculptures, frozen thrones, ice-carved tunnels, slides, and fountains. For the past month, crews have been growing from 5,000-12,000 icicles to sculpt into existing formations.

While the basic shape is laid out, factors such as wind, temperature, and humidity play a part in the final form.

“Ice is so phenomenally beautiful. All we do is set the stage so people and families can come out. You don’t have to be an ice climber or an explorer to get the experience of being in an ice cave or glacier. It’s just beautiful,” he said.

Christensen believes coming from a warm-weather climate without a lot of pre-conceived ideas helped him hit upon the concept, which still required a lot of “blessings and good fortune” to become what it is today.

A structure built in his sideyard in Midway drew the attention of plenty of commuters and a couple of television stations, but he was unable to convince any resorts in the area to let him try one on their properties. He’d pretty much given up on the idea when the even-smaller town of Midway agreed to a build there.

A few years later he turned over his small business operation of fixing lawnmowers, bicycles, snowblowers and the like to friends, took on a partner in Ryan Davis out of Colorado, and set about on expanding. This year, there are six sites in play — the starting spot of Midway, along with Dillon, Colo., Stillwater, Minn., Lincoln, N.H., and Edmonton, which was delayed by a warm spell earlier in the season.

The recent cold snap made things difficult for growth here, but Christensen said any delays in opening were due to a new location and crew. They’d prefer to let people start exploring prior to the Christmas break, and expects that’ll be the case next year despite the fact an ice show at the Forks last year took a bit of bath.

“Even when it’s ridiculously cold, people still want to get out. I think Winnipeggers are crazy about going out in winter,” he said. “It’s a pretty amazing mindset. Despite the cold of winter, we’ve given them something new and novel that everyone can do together.”

See icecastles.com for hours, ticket prices and other information.

TIMES TIME

Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club, the gritty honky-tonk on Main at St. Mary Avenue, is celebrating its 17th anniversary this weekend, and its future has never been brighter. Get down with the D. Rangers, and Romi Mayes with Chris Carmichael, on Friday; Andrew Neville and the Poor Choices, and the Vince Andrushko Trio, on Saturday; and, the jam hosted by Big Dave McLean on Sunday.

NOW IT’S DARK

A 2K restoration of David Lynch’s brooding exploration of middle America, Blue Velvet, plays at 7 p.m. at Cinematheque on Friday and Saturday, while a companion documentary piece, Blue Velvet Revisited, opens Thursday night, but also screens right after the feature on Saturday and Sunday. Go for a ride?

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